Every day we’re in a battle for our attention; a battle we don’t realize we’re in and so every day we surrender much of it to a media army bombarding us with stories of fear, incompetence, corruption, natural disaster, war, terrorism, human tragedy, injustice, failure, prejudice., oh, and a sprinkling of cute pet stories; you […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Why don’t more of us take on the tough questions like, “What do you want to leave behind?”, or “What difference do you want your life to make?” One reason is mainstream education was specifically designed to train us for factory-type work for the top 1%, and the last thing the one percenters want is […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

When directed at yourself, this is perhaps the most profound questions you can ask. “What kind of person am I? It’s a question that has no answer like 2 + 2 has an answer; we either create our own, or adopt one given to us by society or religion. Then it’s up to us to […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

For sheer audacity, nothing beats Kennedy’s speech to “…land a man on the moon and bring him safely back to the earth.” He could have said, “We will make the biggest pizza pie the world has ever seen and have every American eat a slice with the Soviet Union watching on live TV,” but that […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

What is the inspiring, galvanizing speech of our time? What is the “I have a dream” (King), Gettysburg address (Lincoln), the “We shall fight on the beaches” (Churchill) of today? Did I miss it? I think great speeches are out there, but no single speech is having the lasting mass movement effect of any of […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Boy do we love the good old days. When life was sweeter and had meaning. Now everyone’s fond of saying “back in the day” (BITD). “BITD” really works to glorify the past doesn’t it? Perhaps because it implies that we’re not “in the day” now; that now we’re in the night or some cloudy, overcast […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

We all know the risk of being insensitive, rude and politically incorrect. We’ve felt the sting of crossing the line enough times to know it’s not socially acceptable. How then to explain Donald Trump, who attributes his success to crossing that line? What is the Trump winning formula and is there anything about him to […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

We live with a curious irony: everyone makes mistakes, but no one admits to making them. OK, maybe you’re one of the few that admits theirs, but most people are as unwilling to admit their mistakes as they are to draw attention to the piece of lettuce stuck between their teeth. That’s curious isn’t it? […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

There is no pill to stop you from doing or saying something stupid, but you can reduce your chances of doing something you’ll regret if you pay attention to the mood you’re in. There are two moods that promote actions you will almost always regret: anger and fear. Acting from anger I’ve regretted almost every […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

The biggest problem with regret is that it keeps your attention on the past where you re-play your favourite beat-yourself-up stories, or you play out different scenarios of how your life would have turned out better if only you hadn’t insulted your boss, or chose what was behind door 2 instead of door 3. Most […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Most of us wrestle with regret from time to time and it’s interesting to notice how often we do. For many of us, we never seem to win our regret re-matches and we seem to be locked in an ongoing conflict between how things are and how things might have been…if only. What is regret […]Original linkOriginal author: TanTan85...

Work engagement numbers haven’t changed much since 2011. Gallup’s State of the American workplace update has the percentage of disengaged workers in 2015 as 68% down from 71% in 2011. Not stellar progress given the focus Gallup and others have given the problem. More importantly though, I think the idea that 68% of the American […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

No one likes to think of themselves as indoctrinated, but you would be the rare person indeed who wasn’t indoctrinated into something: religion, patriotism, or (insert favourite sports team here). A profound sign of your own personal growth is noticing where you’ve been indoctrinated and choosing what parts of your indoctrination—if any—are worth keeping. Indoctrination […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

If you’re not a religious person you might think faith has no significant place in your life. I certainly did, but I’m coming home to this word that I once rejected, and I think everyone practices faith whether they realize it or not. My early experience with faith Growing up as a Roman catholic, I heard […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Let’s save some time. Of course you are; at least if you go by the strict definition of the word. Hypocrisy is the practice of claiming moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behaviour does not conform. Every one is a hypocrite in some area of their life. What is hypocrisy? But hypocrisy or […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

I’ve always noticed calm people. Perhaps because most people aren’t, but also because it seems so clear that calm people don’t suffer the stresses of modern life: the insults, accusations, disappointments, injustices, incompetence, corruption, arrogance, disloyalty, unkindness, cruelty, unwillingness, bullying and more; and that’s just from my 12-year old. Just kidding, I don’t have kids. […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

The truth, we’ve been told, is out there somewhere and we can thank science for showing us how to arrive at truth, reject untruth, and most importantly to dethrone out old truth’s that no longer apply. This is good because the truth is much bigger and more unknowable than we give it credit for; that’s […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

We’ve been taught that hard work, not intelligence, is the key to success, but that couldn’t be true. If it were then why are millions of very hard-working people experiencing stress, regret, disappointment and fear? Millions of people live in a perpetual cycle of (1) work hard, (2) worry and (3) repeat. At the […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Ambition gets no respect. It’s hard to respect something that you don’t understand. Many hold ambition as a drive to succeed that causes those driven to do whatever it takes to win, including stab people in the back. For many, ambitious people are not to be trusted. Yet we also know that ambition is something […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

It’s easy to believe that we’re surrounded by hate, mistrust, violence etc. News reports often add the cute human or animal story at the end of their programs as an antidote to the poison they spread, but because it’s so clearly thrown in as the odd special interest story we don’t even consider that stories […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Ever kicked yourself for sending an email, or raising your voice in anger? How did that work out for you? I’m betting not good. Nothing got solved, relationships weren’t helped, in fact things got worse. So you learned your lesson right? You’ll never do that again. But you did didn’t you? Welcome to the club. […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

As we think about another year completed it’s easy to get sucked into thought clouds of disappointments and resignations over repeated failures, missed goals and all the bad stuff you read about. But something happened a few days ago that made me realize that our lives are not just about becoming, achieving and striving, but […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

When asked if he was dating anyone, a comedian said that he was in an exclusive relationship with himself. It was funny because everyone expected him to name some hot starlet, or at least someone else. What he meant was that he was way too selfish to be in a committed relationship with anyone. But […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Are you working on something that can change the world? That’s the simple metric Larry Page uses according to Richard Diamonds and Steven Koller in their book “Abundance: the future is better than you think.” What Page uses this metric for they didn’t say, but I’ll guess it’s for assessing whether projects (and maybe people) […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Most of us learned that degrees are good things; that having a degree was the key to a good job, security and a high salary. Older generations came to believe this because they looked around and noticed that the people above them—the managers, the politicians, and professionals — all had an “education.” Therefore the path to […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

The term integrity is commonly used as a standard of moral uprightness. Whose morality is often not questioned; Taliban morality, Catholic morality, Jewish morality etc.,? Morality is society’s distinction between good and bad, right and wrong behaviour and these are not universally agreed. The right to murder, take more than one wife, or educate are […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

The other day I was talking a well-travelled short-cut to avoid Saddle Road traffic when I had to stop at a speed bump to wait for opposing traffic to file past because parked cars made the road single lane.
“Ay stranger! How you doing?”
I looked at the driver of the car going in the opposite direction and pretended to recognise the woman who clearly knew me.
“I good. Long time no see.”
“Yes. You know. Everything good with you?”
“Cyah complain. We need to lime soon.”
“Yes. We’ll catch up soon.”
“OK. See you.”
The exchange must have taken all...

At a friend’s place not too long ago a father told his young son “Be quiet! Big people are speaking.” The boy dutifully shut up. I felt sorry for the eight-year old as he wasn’t being rude; he had in fact interjected just at a pause in our conversation the way a polite adult would […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Work life balance is a flawed concept in the same way that love life balance would be—even if everyone passed the phrase around like a bad cold. Yet people often love too little, eat too much, and yes; work too much. The issue is not balancing relationships, health, or work with life itself, but managing these […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Work life balance is the holy grail of modern existence. Amazon’s 15,000+ results for the term shows how desperate we are to find the solution to one of the greatest problems of modern life: work is necessary to live, but we spend so much time working that we have precious time left to live. If work […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

We’re used to technology growing up to eat its parents and that’s OK because new technology is always better. Right? We certainly don’t lament rotary phones, wind up car windows, or drive-in movies; yet there does still seem to be a place for film, vinyl and mail. So I think it is with handwriting. Cursive […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

One of Amazon’s Leadership Principles states that leaders “Are Right, A Lot!” This is a destructive principle and probably a major contributor to why many Amazon employees find the company a difficult place to work. Here’s why: Leaders become rigid and defensive when they believe they must be right The big problem with a leadership […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

It feels terrible to be mis-understood; when something as clear and obvious as day is described as night by someone else. When that person is a client or boss it’s even worse. Why is it that people don’t get your point-of-view and what can you do about it? Most common reasons people don’t agree with […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Almost every time I’ve listened to the stories of someone lacking self-confidence or going through recurring relationship problems, depression, anger, etc. I’ve heard one of a child who felt they weren’t loved, weren’t loved as much as another sibling, or were loved conditionally e.g. by good grades, winning, doing chores etc. Mom/Dad didn’t love me […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Last week’s post was about how we age; our choice to either hold on to youth’s veneer or let ourselves fall gracefully into old age through the way we live now. It was about embracing ageing through practicing wisdom, compassion and contribution before we are old so that we can use these capacities to continue […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

One reason no one wants to age is that we have so few examples of people thriving in old age. Old age narratives are of loss; loss of beauty, mobility, strength, flexibility, independence, intellect, memory, relationships etc. Old age narratives are of separation from the flock, of weakness, sickness, depression, decline and … death. Talk […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Slavery didn’t end. But of course you know that. The news still features human trafficking and children sold into the same cruel millenia-old slavery. Likened to software or web development, this legacy slavery would be slavery 1.0 or maybe 1.1 But I think there’s a new pervasive form of slavery around today that I call […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Imagine how we could perform in art, sport and career if the idea of practicing was a turn on. Practice is the consistent engagement with actions and behaviours that confer “expert ease” at something. Practice, at least deliberate practice, increases our capacities to perform at whatever we’re practicing for. Yet most of us find it […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Do you still use your imagination? If you’re like most, my guess is not so much. When you were a child your imagination was on overdrive and now it’s like a favourite toy that’s been put away. You still have it but you never take it out to play anymore. But imagination is the gateway […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

If you work, sooner or later, you’ll have a bad boss. It’s just like if you drive long enough you’ll have a flat tyre and get pulled over by the cops, but while these last two can be over in a few minutes, a bad boss can last for years. A bad boss can cost […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Most everyone thinks about robots taking our jobs as a bad thing. How will people earn a living? But perhaps it’s not a bad thing. Robots taking our jobs could completely reinvent what it means to work and earn a living. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone had machines do their farming, manufacturing, cooking, cleaning […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

When people talk about forgiveness it’s often in a religious context—as heaven’s admission price. But forgiveness is not only for the deeply religious, it’s a fundamental human capacity—like capacities to think, work and create —that we either develop or it withers. And before we can even talk about how to develop one’s capacity to forgive, […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

In your daily encounters, which would you prefer to make? Friends or foes? That’s not a trick question. Too often people choose to foe-make by reacting unhelpfully to negative social and work encounters. Sometimes with scowls, snide remarks, the finger or outright ‘cussin’. Even when our reactions to apparent unhelpfulness or bad attitudes are not […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

We don’t usually think of cost when applied to people, but it does. Cost is not just a monetary concept, it describes the time and effort spent, the degree of unpleasantness or even pain and suffering incurred when dealing with … people. You know high cost people because you describe them as a Pain in […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Most of us are quick to assign blame. It’s like a reflex. At an instinctive level it seems right, even normal. The murderer, burglar, rapist, swindler is a bad and evil person and should be punished. And the behaviour need not be criminal. The same phenomenon is in play in our everyday lives. We […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

I watched the Bruce Jenner Dianne Sawyer’s interview, not out of any curiosity, but because I couldn’t get the clicker away from my mother as I was having a late dinner. I neither expected to like Bruce, nor to find personal relevance to my life in his story, but through Sawyer’s brilliantly compassionate interview I […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

There is nothing wrong with failing as long as it comes from a sincere effort to succeed and we learn from the experience so we don’t repeat the mistake on our next attempt. But for many failures—starting that business, writing that book, or losing that 20lbs—most of us don’t learn and we often repeat the […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Whenever I think Employee Engagement (EE) has already become another buzz-phrase in the business world, someone asks me what it is. I say engagement describes the degree to which people care about the work they do. Engaged people care, dis-engaged people don’t. That simple. It’s no surprise that businesses are increasingly turning to EE because […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

How many things are you a “NO” to? A bad boss, gossiping colleagues, poor customer service, traffic, corrupt politicians, poverty, etc., etc. Do you notice that the things you’re against never seem to go away? If you’re against jobs you hate, unhealthy relationships, being overweight, an uncertain future, why do you always seem to have them […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

You probably have your favourite distractors—the time wasters that you find yourself engaging with when you know you should be doing something else. In “Your Distraction Buffet” I mentioned that sometimes your distractors appear to be work or work related and in fact are not. You spend time on them justifying that time by thinking […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Ever spend a day being really busy, doing lots of stuff, yet at day’s end a friend asking “Productive day?,” leaves you staring into the question like a deer into headlights. “What the hell did I get done today?” Decimate my daily to-do list? Complete a project? Wrote a chapter? Finished that presentation? No? Good […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

You might be familiar with the Machiavellian position that it’s better to be feared than loved. Unless you’re interested in acquiring raw power, I’m going to say that it’s the wrong question to ask if your objective is to get people to help you achieve your ambition or business mission. If you’re the kind of […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

If Steve Jobs’ had a show like Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice,” his equivalent of Trump’s “You’re Fired” might have been “This is shit!” In Walter Isaacson’s authorised biography, that’s how Jobs often responded to any product, service, presentation or argument that didn’t meet his high standards, and he wasn’t shy about whose heart he stabbed […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Trying to ignite passion in people who don’t have it is like getting a child to eat his vegetables by yelling “It’s good for you, dammit.” You get tired and the vegetables only get eaten when you’re micro-managing chews. More effective to hire for passion first Similarly, in a work environment, managers feel just as […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

An apology is the best way to heal the relationship damage we cause when our mistakes hurt people. But there are times—usually in political situations—when offering an apology is not in your best interest. I once found myself in a difficult position where despite working very hard I made an unbelievable goof that had my […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Our instinct is to avoid making enemies; to have everyone be our friend and ally. But we’ll fail. Everyone has enemies: the Dalai Lama, The Pope even Jesus had enemies. In A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson documents how, even among learned scientific minds, fierce rivalries have dominated much of scientific progress from biologists upset […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

We like drama in books and movies because it excites and creates tension and conflict that gets quickly resolved. We know how it turns out by the time we put the book down, or walk out of the theatre. Thank God, because it’s stressful to stay in drama states for extended periods of time. Which […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Happy good, unhappy bad. Not too many people will challenge that. But being not happy doesn’t mean you’re unhappy. There are other non-happy emotional states that reward and fulfil the spirit. People who love their jobs are often focused, aggressive, challenged, curious, anxious, attentive, reflective, perturbed, inspired, stressed, thoughtful, vigilant and zealous. Distinctly not happy. Why […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

There was a scene in “The Imitation Game” when the protagonist —as baddies started to destroy his work—exclaimed, “You will never understand the importance of what I am creating here.” And as they continued wreaking havoc around him it was clear they didn’t. Poor sap. But it made me think of the main reason […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Entrepreneurs are the marines of business. Figuratively speaking, they take the beachhead, and incur the heaviest casualties. Entrepreneurs have the “no guts, no glory” swag necessary to risk their money, time and reputation on a dream, and because so many fail, we think that only the naturally gifted could do what it takes to reap […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Many bad bosses are nice people, but they all create unnecessary cost in high staff turnover and inefficiency. Motivation enough to get rid of them. But from a purely human perspective, bad bosses give work a bad name. They fuel negative work conversations and provide ‘evidence’ that work cannot be enjoyable and productive. Bad bosses […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

As we leave 2014 wondering what the world will be like without Robin Williams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Richard Attenborough, and Maya Angelou; what would motivate young men to shoot a child or cut a man’s head off; how the technology exists to find my iPhone but not a 100 ton plane with hundreds of people […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

If you keep up with the literature you now ‘know’ that following your passion is not only bad advice, but the ‘worst advice you could give anyone.’ Why? Because your passion, if you have one, may be a financial dead-end, against the law, socially reprehensible, or you may suck at it. Ask the average journalist, […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Failure is nature’s way of preparing you for success. And thank her for that, because life would be numbingly boring if you immediately succeeded at everything you tried. Unfortunately this isn’t widely taught and so millions of us grow up imprisoned by a few bad outcomes, or worse failing at something important and not knowing […]Original linkOriginal author: TanTan86...

We’ve all heard of the SMART goal acronym. Tom Deierlein just wrote a great article on SMART goals and it’s wise to see if a goal is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time specific before taking it on. But what about the stuff that we might be doing now? Well here’s a STUPID acronym you […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

How’d you like to take as much vacation as you like, whenever you like, and not have to worry about anybody at work counting the days you’ve taken? Well my hero Richard Branson announced on Wednesday that this is the new vacation policy. It’s in fact a “no vacation policy” policy. What’s the catch? He […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

If you said ‘play’ you’d be in the majority. And you’d be wrong. Think of it. The opposite of anything is another thing completely devoid of every quality of the first thing. When I ask this question in my work engagement training sessions, I ask people what comes to mind when they think of […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Just like the food you eat could be bad for you, the work you do could be also. In fact, the way most people relate to diet and exercise is the way they relate to work. They’d prefer not to do it. Food disconnected from nutrition Long ago native Peoples had no concept of diet. […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Just like the food you eat could be bad for you, the work you do could be also. In fact, the way most people relate to diet and exercise is the way they relate to work. They’d prefer not to do it. Food disconnected from nutrition Long ago native Peoples had no concept of diet. […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Of the three life stage descriptors —young, middle-aged, old—only young connotes life. Middle-aged and old allude to decay and impending death. Real downers. A non-issue if you’re under 35, but a big one as you approach and past 40. And it’s not just about the physical decline of the body. Changing career The author Robin Black describes what […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Of the three life stage descriptors —young, middle-aged, old—only young connotes life. Middle-aged and old allude to decay and impending death. Real downers. A non-issue if you’re under 35, but a big one as you approach and past 40. And it’s not just about the physical decline of the body. Changing career The author Robin Black describes what […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Someone recounted an unkind incident to me recently. A govt worker was insensitive and cruel to an old lady who was alone and in need of help. Like a scene from a slavery or apartheid era movie, this woman thought it fit to speak in a condescending and accusing manner to a person who was […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Someone recounted an unkind incident to me recently. A govt worker was insensitive and cruel to an old lady who was alone and in need of help. Like a scene from a slavery or apartheid era movie, this woman thought it fit to speak in a condescending and accusing manner to a person who was […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Why is it that so many workers seem to exist as cogs in a system; unsmiling robots mechanically going through the motions, rigidly enforcing the established process. The answer is that these workers are not emotionally vested in their jobs. They are emotionally detached from what they do and engage in their work as physical labour. […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Why is it that so many workers seem to exist as cogs in a system; unsmiling robots mechanically going through the motions, rigidly enforcing the established process. The answer is that these workers are not emotionally vested in their jobs. They are emotionally detached from what they do and engage in their work as physical labour. […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

How could it be that we don’t actively practice forgiveness? The most popular prayer in the world, literally a prayer straight from the big Guy admonishes “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Yet forgiveness is not taught, practiced or developed in mainstream education. To the extent encouraged in religious […]Original linkOriginal author: TanTan86...

How could it be that we don’t actively practice forgiveness? The most popular prayer in the world, literally a prayer straight from the big Guy admonishes “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Yet forgiveness is not taught, practiced or developed in mainstream education. To the extent encouraged in religious […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

How you look at your life affects how you feel about it which then impacts the actions you take. Feel badly about yourself or the way your life is going and you’re more likely to stay home and brood. Feel good about your life or career and you’re more likely to act for the sake […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

How you look at your life affects how you feel about it which then impacts the actions you take. Feel badly about yourself or the way your life is going and you’re more likely to stay home and brood. Feel good about your life or career and you’re more likely to act for the sake […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Much of our people problems at home and at work come from the common mistake that we can know not only the truth, but the whole truth … and nothing but. We can’t and that’s why I can’t imagine being selected for a jury. I just could not take the oath “I solemnly swear to […]Original linkOriginal author: JangoTan2...

Much of our people problems at home and at work come from the common mistake that we can know not only the truth, but the whole truth … and nothing but. We can’t and that’s why I can’t imagine being selected for a jury. I just could not take the oath “I solemnly swear to […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Employers today sift for soft-skilled employees like prospectors of old sifting for gold. They prospect because, like gold, self-motivated, empathic and responsible (soft-skilled) workers are rare and valuable to an organisation. What makes Soft Skills so valuable? Soft skills make salespeople effective, employees self-starters, give a doctor or nurse their bedside manner or make a […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

Most people hate to commit. No, it’s not just guys in relationship and marriage. The average person hates to be pinned down by a promise and that’s why the willingness to obligate to another person is THE differentiator of professionals. But what accounts for this unwillingness to commit? Why does making commitments seem as unappealing […]Original linkOriginal author: JangoTan2...

TV soap operas are addictive because most people can’t resist being on the inside of people’s lives, knowing their dirty laundry and having someone—an arch villain to hate. We somehow can’t pull ourselves away from watching a totally avoidable and needless drama unfold. One person does something, says something, or maybe doesn’t do or say […]Original linkOriginal author: JangoTan2...

The other day I gave a talk about something that my particular audience knew that I was bad at. Most teachers and coaches are not nobel prize winners in their fields, but to be effective they must have some authority, and with this particular audience I had as much credibility as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford […]Original linkOriginal author: JangoTan2...

The other day my girlfriend asked me what advice would I give young Peter if I could go back in time. Surprisingly, it was a hard question to answer. There are just so much advice I wish I had gotten or listened to. Looking back, what would have made the most difference for me? […]Original linkOriginal author: Peter Anthony Gales...

2014 is here. Seems like it accelerated towards us like a peregrine falcon in full dive. Where did 2013 go and what really got done? I think your natural enthusiasm for 2014 may depend on how you answer that question. If 2013 fulfilled your expectations, or was part of your unfolding plan of ambition, you […]Original linkOriginal author: JangoTan2...

So we’ve all made our individual resolutions to be a better person. Here a few that I wish more Trinis would make for 2014
10. Less mauvais langue
For 2014 I will not be so quick to repeat unsubstantiated BS. I will strive to be more aware of my personal biases and give most people the benefit of the doubt. When I do come down strongly on one side of an issue I will have done my research.
9. Look for the good in TnT.
For 2014 I will help bring attention to the work of honest, hard-working and creative...

It’s easy to talk about Mandela as if he were a secular saint. He certainly would meet the minimum two miracle requirement for sainthood: He literally transformed, fear, hatred and vengeance into forgiveness and compassion. Not exactly raising Lazarus, but trumps water into wine, don’t you think? For his second miracle, how about his […]Original linkOriginal author: stu12ount...

Haven't awarded a Cobo award in a while, but after reading the article "Tool, fool, mule work for low wages" I had to award it to Billy Bratton the ex NYC police chief for not only making work be ALL about money, but also for insulting every person who chooses to give up high-pay to serve a greater good, or whose education places high paying jobs out of reach.
Talk about fomenting needless unrest.
An unbelievably insensitive and short-sighted remark.
Word to Mr. Bratton
Billy!
Dude! Yes for some people it's all about money. Those people choose careers in politics...

I’ve shut the door on many a Jehovah’s witness so it may seem odd to say that I admire them or devout people of faith. But I believe that they can teach us a few things about living a passionate committed life. Here are six: 1. Choose your context The first is they have chosen […]Original linkOriginal author: stu12ount...

People always seem to do or believe things that are destructive, inconsiderate, inefficient, ineffective, short-sighted, annoying, exasperating, etc., etc. Those of us who know better (ahem),… would like them to stop. But annoyingly, our efforts to cause change don’t work. Why won’t they change dammit! We make people wrong Because we make people feel stupid,bad […]Original linkOriginal author: thepracticeofyourlife...

Dictation and the technology that made it possible—short-hand—died because typing your own thoughts on a computer was far more efficient and cost-effective than dictating to a secretary—even a sexy one like Mad Men’s Christine Hendricks. Dictation may make a comeback though; ironically due to the same technology that killed it in the first place: computers. […]Original linkOriginal author: thepracticeofyourlife...

It’s odd to think that someone could be murdered in a place called Trinidad. The name conjures peace love and paradise, but increasingly it is not. Here’s a two-year old story I penned about a murder that affected my family. I had not published it out of sensitivity for those affected. Three shots and no […]Original linkOriginal author: thepracticeofyourlife...

OK so you know that service is not (yet) our strong suit. Here are some tips to get better service in TnT.
1.Reward it when you see it
Acknowledge any and everyone that does their job with a smile. People need to know that their job matters and that they make a difference. Ask the server their name, use it, look them in the eyes etc. These are simple things that make people feel that you see them as human beings and can make a gigantic difference in the type of service you receive. Compliment people for simple things like their...

We couldn’t possibly remain conscious to every choice we have in any given minute, hour or day so we invent routines, rituals, traditions, standard practices and jobs to relieve us of the effort of continually making conscious choices. This is helpful but has one major drawback: namely, getting so used to our automatic-pilot default choices that […]Original linkOriginal author: thepracticeofyourlife...

There's an old Trini saying that goes
"Cobo doh eat sponge cake,"
which essentially means that the bad will avoid the good.
In that spirit, we're excited to announce the Cobo and Sponge Cake awards as a means to playfully highlight great or bad experiences with businesses. For products or services that fall below expectations, annoy, disappoint or are just plain terrible we have the Cobo award. For products and services above expectations, delight and surprise we have the Sponge Cake Award.
Why Cobo Award?
For newcomers and visitors to Trinidad, our local vulture is affectionately called the "cobo"(wrong...

Why are we called human beings? After all we don’t refer to any other creature on the planet as a being. We don’t say tiger beings, cockroach beings, or cow beings. It’s not even related to self-aware ‘beings’ because we don’t refer to dolphins or elephants or apes as beings. Googling the question is […]Original linkOriginal author: thepracticeofyourlife...

If you’re visiting Trinidad & Tobago or planning on staying here for a few years, here’s some good news/bad news you won’t see on our government websites and tourist brochures.
First
The bad news:
Service in Trinidad is not good (steeeups) and according to some it’s even worse in Tobago. If you've been to Barbados and the tourists spots in Jamaica don't expect that level of service here. As a Jamaican friend described it to me, he said in Jamaica there are three kinds of service: 1. tourist service (good) 2. Friend service (very good) and 3. 'Res' ah...

If you’re new to Trinidad, and would like to experience us culturally, not just go to the beaches, and listen to our wonderful ‘steel drums’ (we call it pan by the way), then you should know that we ‘does talk a how’, meaning that we have our own unique way of speaking.
To understand our culture you need to understand what liming (pronounced without the 'g") is and here's a take on it that you won't find in any official tourist guidebook.
Lime
Closest meaning: “To hang out”
verb e.g. we liming tonight.
Noun e.g. De lime was sweet.
If...